With northerly winds forecast for the next couple of days hopefully we will get some of that crystal clear water turned over in our estuaries and fish will begin to feed more freely. Although I don’t think it will last long with more westerly’s forecast for next week. There are still plenty of fish in the river, but I hear the better catches are coming from the cover of darkness for those braving the cold conditions. Blackfish, mulloway & perch are still very prevalent right throughout the Shoalhaven system.

Freshly pumped squirt worms are the number one bait for the blackfish this time of the year and once you get onto a school the action can be thick and fast for a couple of hours. Around the Nowra reef, Broughten creek and Greenwell Point Wharf are good options if you are after a feed of Luderick with the later being a good spot for the land based fisho.

Off the rocks there have been a handful of small to midsized kings around taking live yakka’s and stickbaits. The drummer fisherman have been having a ball on some big pigs on the northern & southern ledges using peeled prawn baits or bread with a heavy burley.

I nside Jervis bay there have been some big bream cruising around the beaches, but with the clear water they are pretty spooky. A longish sort of rod around 8ft with either light braid or straight through fluorocarbon and small plastics or nipper baits should get you a few. These are nice clean fish and great for the table if you are after a feed. Again night time would give you a better chance if you want to brave the cold, other than that sunrise or sunset would be your next best time option.

There are still plenty of squid in the bay and can be caught throughout the day. Moving into deeper water during the height of the sun if things are slow sometimes works but you may have to clip a bit of extra weight onto the nose of your jig depending on the speed of your drift and the depth you are fishing.

Offshore micro jigging is really starting to get a foothold in our local area. It has taken some time for fisho’s to spread their wings, change their tactics and try this new and very successful form of fishing, but once they have and had a good day I’m told it is very addictive and many anglers are catching more fish and more species which they wouldn’t usually catch. Pretty much every species in the wild blue will take a micro jig if it’s put in the right spot. It’s just a matter of finding those right spots. You can do micro jigging with your standard 15lb to 20lb snapper soft plastic outfit but the more specialized rods and reels make the job at hand easier and more successful. Like anything the right tool for the right job. Damo Monahan is a recently converted micro jigger and has been getting some good results with snapper, nannygai and a handful of other species he would not usually catch fishing bait or using soft plastics. He is pictured below with a nice red from a recent micro jig session.

Don’t forget Murray cod season in NSW closes the end of this month until the 1st of December so if you want to get one, now is the time to go. Reports from Whyangla, Burrinjuck and Blowering are all pretty good with some nice fish still being taken. For a coastal based tackle shop we have a pretty good range of cod gear from rods and reels to big swim baits, spinner baits and surface lures, so if you want to give it a go come in and we can help you out. We love stories of first time cod fisho’s coming in, buying an outfit and tackle then going and landing a big cod like the one pictured below caught on a recent trip to Burrinjuck dam by one of our customers Cohen Jirgens. At just over a metre it’s an awesome specimen I’m sure we would all like to catch! Well done Cohen.

Enjoy your weekend everyone and see if you can catch some fish like these!